The murder of a senior diplomat in Jordan’s capital Amman was a crime aimed not only at the United States but also against the Jordanian government. Information Minister Mohammad Adwan weighed the consequences of the crime correctly when he described it as an attack "on the country and its national security."
The fact that no one immediately claimed responsibility for the assassination opened the possibility that this could have been the act of a lone individual or an unknown group. However, going by past experience, many will claim credit and many will get blamed for the crime. Past experience shows that some groups will make entirely spurious claims whenever such crimes are committed. Who gets accused will depend on who is making the accusation. Israel will have no doubt that the assassin was a Palestinian and that Yasser Arafat was somehow responsible. Iraqi intelligence and Al-Qaeda will be other early suspects. None of them may be responsible. Or anyone of them can be. There are enough people around who are angry enough at America to commit such a terrible crime.
America’s dogged pursuit of its pro-Zionist policies to the detriment of seeking a genuinely equitable Palestinian solution has caused despair among its friends and fury among those who regard everything that America does as evil. Washington’s ever more bellicose attitude toward Iraq clearly makes an Iraqi-inspired assassination a possibility. Baghdad itself would have no immediate benefit from killing an unarmed American diplomat. However, the effect of the crime on tensions both regionally and within Jordan itself could very well play to Baghdad’s advantage. An Al-Qaeda attack is also a possibility, especially since in July the Jordanian authorities arrested some of its members when they fled to the country from Afghanistan.
Jordan has been on a high state of alert in recent months, in preparation for just such an attack. It is likely that one purpose in committing the murder was to belittle the Jordanian authorities and ratchet up the nervousness within the Jordanian capital. It is probably significant that the dead man, Lawrence Foley, was an executive officer of USAID. Jordan is the world’s fourth largest recipient of USAID funds, reflecting its regional importance to Washington.
In the end though, Foley’s death is just the latest in a black torrent of terrorist murders that have scarred the last 14 months. It remains a mystery to all rational people how anyone can imagine that the butchery of innocent people brings anything but shame upon the causes in the name of which the crimes are committed. Israel’s wicked treatment of the Palestinian people and America’s bovine support for its aggression are palpably unjust. However behaving with the same savage brutality to equally blameless people is no answer.
The Bush White House has not become notable for its subtlety. It appears determined to ignore all advice from friends that real and substantial progress on a Palestinian settlement will raise its stock in the Arab world, while unilateral action against Iraq will mire its reputation even further.
It is sad to reflect that Foley will not be the last innocent man to fall to violence in the region.
